Capitol Hill Libya outrage all smoke (and fundraising)… no fire March 24, 2011 · Posted in 2012, News and Current Affairs, Political News, Politics
Dennis Kucinich wants President Obama impeached! … Impeached, I say! … over Libya. Democrats and Republicans are racing to the microphones, insisting Congress was not consulted before the mission began … unless of course, Congress was consulted, but Dennis wasn’t on the relevant commitees.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Wednesday reiterated her support for the U.S. military intervention on Libya while saying American participation “is strengthened by the president’s continued consultation with Congress.”
Her comments come amid increasing complaints from lawmakers that the Obama administration has kept Congress out of the loop during the early military campaign. A Pelosi ally, House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson (Conn.), has been critical of the mission and said “the full Congress should have been more informed and involved in this decision.”
Pelosi issued a statement backing Obama’s policy last Friday, before the mission began but after he briefed congressional leaders at the White House. She has been on an official trip to Afghanistan and Italy, where she and other lawmakers were briefed by the chief of staff for the U.S. Army Africa command that is overseeing the Libya operations.
Last Friday? But I thought the president only consulted with the foreigners?
Cue this piece in Politico, which features lots of hand wringing, hemming and hawing, but not a single lawmaker on either side of the aisle who doubts the legality of the president’s actions. A few quotes:
The common complaint among lawmakers is that Obama didn’t explain himself to Congress or the public before pushing the nation into a third armed conflict.
In what might be a nod to that critique, White House officials invited one aide from each House and Senate office to an unclassified briefing in the auditorium of the Capitol Visitor Center on Tuesday afternoon.
Except that…
For those who are still upset about a lack of consultation with Congress, there’s no consensus on a feasible remedy — if one exists — or even on the question of whether it was the right call to fire missiles on Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi’s air defenses.
Neither Senate Democratic leaders nor House Republican leaders — the majority parties in each chamber — have opposed the president’s action.
Michael Steel, a spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), told POLITICO that “there is no plan for a floor vote” at this point. “However, we will continue to monitor the situation closely and keep in touch with members — especially chairs of the relevant committees.”
There’s talk on the House side of a possible hearing next week to get administration officials to answer questions about the mission, but a spokesman for Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman John Kerry (D-Mass.), who has been an advocate for enforcing a no-fly zone, told POLITICO there are no plans for hearings on Libya.
Sure, Dennis wants to defund the intervention (in the downtime while he’s cooking up impeachment articles, I assume…) but is there anyone on Capitol Hill who is ready to rumble with the White House? Er, no.
Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) told POLITICO he wants to introduce legislation that would give Congress more of a say in war-making once the decision to deploy U.S. forces has been made.
The most vocal critic in congressional leadership is House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson. He wants the president to address Congress — either in public or in a classified briefing — and answer questions about his rationale, his exit strategy and his budget for the war.
“I don’t doubt his legality, and I don’t doubt his authority. But there’s a larger moral authority here on the part of Congress,” Larson told POLITICO on Tuesday. “I think what’s required of the president is an explanation that covers those issues.”
And then Politico re-racks the same info seen in The Hill … the bit about the consultation that took place before any missiles were fired by the U.S. military:
White House officials contend that they have been aggressive in reaching out to party leaders and members of relevant congressional committees, starting with a briefing led by Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the Situation Room last Friday. On successive days, senior aides to the president have publicly encouraged Congress to take action expressing support for the campaign.
“We take very seriously the need to consult with Congress, and we have been doing that, and we would welcome any action they took to show support for this,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters Tuesday.
[Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), founder of the Congressional Constitution Caucus] said it would be appropriate for Congress to make its voice heard — whether through approval or disapproval of the president’s action in Libya.
“Leadership should be considering something at some point,” he said.
Yeah, well there’s that.
So given that Republicans control an entire house of Congress, and the one that starts impeachment hearings, no less, why is there no drumbeat, even from Republicans — who by the way, can’t stand Barack Obama — to declare his actions unconstitutional?
Let’s go to the Clintonites. Surely they still harbor enough residual resentment against Obama for beating their gal in 2008 to hammer his “constitutional law professor” behind into the pavement over Libya… or not:
A top Clinton administration lawyer is defending President Obama against criticism that he overstepped his constitutional authority by ordering missile strikes in Libya without first consulting Congress.
Despite bipartisan frustration on Capitol Hill, Walter Dellinger, a former acting solicitor general and Office of Legal Counsel head, said there’s “no doubt” the military action was legitimate under the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
“Presidential administrations of both political parties have recognized a long tradition that supports this use of force,” Dellinger wrote in POLITICO’s Arena. “And Congress has acknowledged its legitimacy as well.”
Why the strikes are legal, Dellinger argues, is this: the 1973 resolution allows the president to use military action without first going to Congress if they expect U.S. involvement to be “limited in its expected nature, scope and duration,” he wrote.
This argument echoed the administration’s defense of the military action in Libya, which began Saturday. In response to criticism that Obama should have consulted Congress before authorizing strikes, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told reporters on Monday that “this is a limited, in terms of scope, duration and task, operation, which does fall in the president’s authorities.”
Dellinger added that the Obama administration has further complied with the War Powers Resolution, which requires the president to alert Congress within 48 hours of the start of military action if no war is officially declared. The administration did so Monday with a letter addressed to Speaker John Boehner and Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), the Senate president pro tempore.
So is Dennis Kucinich all alone out there?
Well, maybe not. Kucinich is actually in fine company — politicians who make a huge stink about issues they think will fire up their base, and then use them for fundraising appeals. Did I mention that Dennis is also hot to trot on Bradley Manning? Send your non-tax deductible contributions to…
Kucinich’s Obama volley was, predictably, coupled with a media blitz that’s worth its weight in campaign gold:
…a member of Congress can’t lob the I-word into the political pool without causing a few ripples. Sure enough, as soon as word of Kucinich’s musings leaked, the media came calling. And rather than tamp down the controversy, the congressman eagerly kick-started the “urgent debate” on presidential overreach with damn near anyone who’d have him: MSNBC, CNN, the website Raw Story, The Alyona Show (a production of the Russian news network RT), and, most delightfully, Bill O’Reilly. Although no more enlightening than his other sit-downs, Kucinich’s four and half minutes on The Factor did provide the mesmerizing spectacle of a Fox News host pummeling a Democrat while offering bellicose support for the Obama White House.
Now I’m not saying Kucinich doesn’t believe what he’s saying. But he is facing the loss of his district to redistricting, and a set of tough political choices in 2012, including potentially primarying a fellow Democrat. Getting on board with issues that fire up his base (broadly generalized as liberals who are disappointed with, or outright hostile to Obama,) could be the start of an election strategy.
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